The Role of HR in Overcoming Employee Resistance during Organizational Change: Insights from Digital Transformation

Abstract

The paper examines the psychological and organizational processes that minimize employee resistance to digital transformation paying attention to the mediating effects of employee well-being and change readiness and the moderating effects of organizational culture and technological complexity. The variables have been studied in isolation in the previous literature, although there is a paucity of data regarding their combined effect. This study thus provides a comprehensive framework in the sense that it demonstrates how HR practices are capable of influencing the behavioral reactions of the employees towards change. Research aimed at 370 valid responses collected among Pakistani employees in the service sector was done quantitatively with PLS-SEM. After earlier measurements were validated, the scales have been modified to fit a study and analyzed with SmartPLS 4 to direct, mediating and moderating effects. The structural model, reliability, validity, and model fit were evaluated as per the prescriptions by Hair et al. (2022). Findings have validated that the communication and participation, as well as HR training and development influence employee well-being and readiness to change positively (EWB → ER = 0.670; CR → ER = 0.284) thereby minimizing change resistance. The moderation effect by organizational culture on the psychological pathway is significant and technological complexity weak. This paper comes up with a multi-mediator, multi-moderator HR model that not only develops change management theory but also provides feasible recommendations on human-oriented approaches to digital transformation strategies.